Of Gods and Mortals
by Martin III
Summary: Sheba has a side to her that, in retrospect, Felix should have expected before they landed in Lalivero to drop her off. If he had, he could have avoided this whole mess. A shipping-free fic, rated T for minor adult themes and electric shocks.


Author's Notes:

Welcome to my first Golden Sun fic. Both praise and constructive criticism are, of course, much appreciated, especially as further GS fics from me are probable. By the way, the summary for this is arguably a bit misleading, since one of the characters briefly alludes to romantic intentions towards a character not seen in this tale. However, there is indeed no "shipping" as such, and that will probably be the case for most of my GS fics, since I am one of the few GS fans who is not in favor of pairing any of the playable characters up with any other playable character.

The milieu and characters of this fanfic are property of Nintendo and Camelot. This story is set shortly after The Lost Age.

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Of Gods and Mortals

plot and script - Martin III

Beta reader - Lilikoifish

special thanks - the folks on the Golden Sun Chat forum, whose discussions helped prompt this story idea

--------

Thinking it over afterwards, Felix couldn't help but feel that he should have seen it coming. But Sheba had always seemed so... harmless. Certainly she was pompous more than once in a while, like with the Shamans or in Champa, or so many other times, but he always felt she was essentially a well-adjusted person. Compared to himself, at least.

His whole involvement would have been averted if they'd dropped him off in Prox first. He could have investigated whether Karst and Agatio were still alive, and maybe... maybe he would have stayed there. Much as he loved Jenna, he was a stranger to them all in Vale.

But that was useless speculation; he'd wanted to see Sheba off. Period. In fact, in his most selfish moments he wanted to bring her along with him. But wherever it might be that he was going, it was no place for Sheba. The most he could ask for was to spend a pleasant final day with her in Lalivero, and bid her farewell.

He got all of that, except for the "pleasant" part.

It was an embarrassing enough start. The whole town had gotten word of Sheba's return, as he'd expected. What he did not expect was the sheer level of fanfare that would greet her arrival.

"Sheba has returned!" a tall man bellowed as he walked before her, accompanied by two men blasting on clarions. "Hear ye, hear ye! Sheba has returned!"

"Hail Sheba!" people cried from street corners and opened windows. "Hail Sheba! Hail the queen of the gods!"

"Praise Sheba, the one who has saved us!"

"Glory to she who came from the sky!"

"Blessed Sheba once more turns her gaze upon us!"

Banners were waved from high windows, colorful ribbons and streamers were tossed before them, musicians played gaily in the streets, and children danced in their finest costumes.

"Wow," Sheba remarked. "'Queen of the gods'. That's a step up." Her tone was dead neutral, neither pleased nor displeased.

Felix, Sheba, and Piers took the whole hoorah in stride; Sheba was somewhat used to this much attention, and Felix and Piers just regarded the whole thing as silly. The others, however, blushed furiously and struggled to hide their faces all the way to the town square.

"We knew you would return to us, Sheba," Faran said, guiding them onto the stage. "We had faith in your benevolence. And to ensure your good will, we had ten virgins sacrificed to you!"

Sheba's eyes grew as big as fists. "Ten... sacrificed?"

Felix felt a little speechless himself.

"Oh, yes! In fact, they're right here, if you would like to meet them."

Five boys and five girls, all adolescents, came up onto the stage. "We're glad to have sacrificed our innocence to you, holy Sheba," one of the boys said, proudly holding the hand of one of the girls. Sheba let out a sigh of relief.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Jenna said, leaning back against Felix.

"I think I may join you," Isaac added.

"Oh, look on the bright side," Piers offered. "We had nothing to do with it, and at least we've prevented a most terrible irony by bringing Sheba back safe."

Felix turned to give Mia a warning glance, but thankfully the Imil native was firmly biting her lip, though keeping the grin off her face seemed beyond her.

"People of Lalivero!" Sheba cried out, in a voice louder and more powerful than any Felix had ever heard from her before. He spun around to see her standing in the middle of the stage, arms outstretched in a gesture of lordly magnificence - yet with her short stature, shorter crop of blond hair, and eyes defined more by fear and simple juvenile arrogance than any nobler qualities, it was hard to imagine anyone who looked _less_ like a queen of gods. "I appreciate all the effort you put into giving me this wonderful welcome. But your gratitude is mostly misplaced. I could not have even come close to lighting the lighthouses and saving the world without the help of my friends."

Felix gave a satisfied nod. _Finally, some sanity._

That was when things suddenly became a whole lot worse.

"People of Lalivero," Sheba continued, extending a hand towards Felix and the others, "...let me introduce my fellows in the pantheon of gods! This is Felix, god of fertility!"

"What!?" Jenna gasped.

"Fertility of _soil_, Jenna," she clarified in a rather condescending tone. That did nothing to stop Felix from staring at her in horror, and he suspected Jenna was doing the same. "And this is his sister Jenna, goddess of passion and anger!"

"You're darn right I'm the goddess of anger if you don't stop this nonsense and get your butt down here right now!"

"Jenna, these people are believers. You don't have to keep masquerading as mortals in front of them," Sheba said patiently. "And this is Isaac, god of earthquakes and consort to Jenna! And this is Mi-"

As soon as the words "consort of Jenna" left Sheba's mouth, Felix reached out to grab his sister and prevent her from doing something rash. He was a split-second too slow, and Jenna launched herself onto the young "goddess". They fell to the floor of the stage, Jenna bellowing like an enraged water buffalo as she pounded on Sheba.

"Wait, Jenna!" Garet called. "Save a piece of the little twerp for me!"

Felix, Piers, and Isaac leapt into action, struggling to pull the two fire adepts off of Sheba. Arms, legs, and fists flew everywhere, and Felix managed to catch a blow from Jenna's elbow right on the bridge of his nose.

"Run!" screamed the villagers, fleeing in every direction in terror. "It's Ragnarok, the war of the gods!"

----------------------

"Thank you for these very generous accommodations," Isaac said.

"Don't be ridiculous!" the innkeeper laughed nervously. "For the pantheon of gods, it is a mere hovel!"

"We're not gods," Felix corrected.

"You're... not?" The innkeeper frowned. "But, some of your companions had the audacity to lay hands upon Sheba..."

"Sheba's not a god, either."

"What! You dare blaspheme against -"

"Look," Felix held a hand up, sighing with exasperation. "This is very complicated, so just remember this one thing: Sheba and the rest of us are the same. God or mortal, we're the same."

The innkeeper nodded, and Isaac added, "And please, reassure the villagers that we're going to resolve our disagreements in a peaceful manner."

The two of them entered their inn suite, and immediately registered that Isaac's reassurance was shaky at best. The room had three chairs. Sheba was seated by the window in one of them, the sun shining on her like some godly light. The remaining chairs were occupied by Mia and Ivan, but they were both seated at the opposite end of the room with the rest of the group. All five of them were still disheveled from the brawl and looked as though they wanted nothing more than to throttle Sheba.

"I wish Kraden was here," Isaac muttered.

_Just like Isaac to waste energy thinking of things that can't be,_ Felix thought to himself. "Everyone, attention. We're going to straighten this all out, and we're going to do it like adults. As soon as any one of you starts yelling at Sheba, you're out of the room. Understood? Good."

"First things first," Isaac said. "Mia, that was good work, summoning Flora to calm the villagers."

"Thank you, Isaac," she said, bowing her head.

"Ivan, you were less helpful."

"Hey!" he protested. "I did the best I could!"

"Shouting at the villagers, 'Don't worry, I can read minds; they aren't really going to kill Sheba'?"

Ivan folded his arms. "If they were smart, they would have believed me."

"Believed you," Felix snorted in angry derision. "Faran tells me some of the crowd couldn't even hear you over all the yelling and screaming, except for the last couple words. They thought you were shouting, 'Kill Sheba!'"

Ivan blushed.

"Let's get to the matter at hand," Felix went on, turning to the little blond 'goddess'. "Sheba, in case you haven't figured it out by now, that wasn't funny."

"I didn't mean to embarrass Jenna, I swear!" Sheba said in defense. "She told me about her and Isaac months ago; I thought by now she'd be cool with everyone knowing!"

Jenna slapped her palms against her forehead. "Sheba, you idiot -"

"We're not blaming you for that, Sheba," Felix said. He glanced at his sister. "In fact, I think we might take it as a lesson not to tease little girls who don't know any better."

"Yeah, yeah," Jenna muttered, but by the way she lowered her eyes, Felix figured she had learned her lesson.

"I'm not a little girl," Sheba protested. "My advent to Lalivero was over a dozen years ago!"

Ignoring that, Felix went on, "I'm talking about your telling them that we're gods."

Sheba folded her arms. "None of you ever told me you didn't want them to know." Everyone stared at her. "What?"

Jenna folded her hands and leaned forward. "Sheba, listen... we're _not_ gods."

"Of course you are. You've got powers just like me!"

"You're not a god, either," Felix said.

There was a moment of silence, and then Sheba let out a brief laugh. "I get it. You're all having some fun with me. You're -" As she talked, Felix gradually became aware of a familiar tugging and prodding at his mind, and he realized she was mind-reading him. When she finished, she abruptly stopped talking as well, and looked from him to Jenna to Ivan, reading each in turn. "But this is crazy!" she burst out. "Don't you realize who we are?"

"We're just people, Sheba. What would make you think we're gods?"

"Hello? Immortality. Great powers. What's that spell? Gooooodddd."

"Midget-sized blonde," Garet piped in. "Thinks she's a goddess. What's that spell? Duuuummmmb."

"Garet. Out," Felix said sharply.

"But -"

"I warned you at the beginning of this discussion."

"But I wasn't yelling!"

"Just go, Garet," Isaac said firmly.

Garet went, grumbling something about Saturos and Menardi. Felix didn't bother to listen.

"Look," Jenna said to Sheba, "Yeah, we have powers, but we're not immortal."

"Oh come on!" Sheba tossed her head. "Felix jumped off the top of a lighthouse; he's immortal and he knows it! And if he's immortal, you must be too, Jenna!"

Felix shook his head. "Sheba... no, I'm not."

Sheba laughed nervously. "Stop trying to trick me, Felix! It's not funny at all. If you weren't immortal, jumping off Venus Lighthouse would have been... suicide! And all just to keep an eye on me! You can't -"

"You would have drowned if I hadn't, Sheba," he said softly. _And I would have been responsible._

What followed was the most awkward silence Felix had ever encountered.

Thankfully, Isaac cleared his throat and said, "And what about Saturos and Menardi, Sheba? Their powers were greater than yours, and they died."

"That's because they gave up their immortality to become that dragon," Sheba said patiently. "Don't you remember before then, how even when they were completely beaten, you couldn't kill them?"

Isaac scratched the back of his head. "Well, I... Okay, I admit that that was pretty strange, but that doesn't mean they were gods."

"And what makes you think they weren't? You're just being stubborn."

Jenna cut in, "Did Saturos and Menardi tell you they were gods?"

She shook her head. "Being a god isn't something you talk about all the time, you know."

Isaac sighed. "Look, I don't think we're making any progress here. Let's all take a few hours' break and forget about this for a while."

----------------------

But Ivan couldn't forget about it. It was just too ridiculous.

"How could we be gods, and not know it?" he demanded of Sheba. The two of them were taking a walk along the river outside Lalivero. Felix and Isaac were restocking the ship with supplies, Jenna was hiding her face at the inn, Mia was keeping her company, and Garet and Piers were apparently taking care to avoid Sheba.

Sheba shook her head. "I don't know where I come from, who my parents are, or if I have any brothers or sisters, and you're asking how we could not know that we're gods?"

"But our powers come from psynergy!"

She rolled her eyes. "That's like saying a gladiator's strength comes from musculature."

"Well, we're not immortal."

"I crash-landed into Lalivero. I was swallowed whole by a beast from the pits. I fell off the peak of Venus Lighthouse. And yet -"

"Okay, okay! You're immortal, but we're not!"

There was a pause.

Then Sheba turned and shoved Ivan. He gave a cry of surprise, and squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation of the ground - only to remember that he had been walking right along the cliff edge over the river. His arms flailed out, and he just managed to grab hold of a shelf of rock with his fingers. He took a look down and gulped, realizing for the first time just how far up they were.

"Sheba, help me up!"

"That's a pretty long drop there," she said calmly. "Not as long as the drop off Venus Lighthouse, but definitely fatal. If the shock of the fall didn't kill you, it would at least knock you unconscious, after which you'd drown... if you were mortal, that is."

"Wh-what are you talking about?" He was too distraught to mind-read her.

Sheba smacked his right hand with the head of her staff. Pain shot through him, and he impulsively let go. His left arm throbbed with strain as it now supported his entire body weight.

"Ivan, relax. I'm just proving to you that you're immortal."

"Sh-sheba... don't..." he pleaded.

Convulsing with giggles, Sheba bent down and began prying each of his fingers off the shelf of rock. "Hee hee... This little piggy went to market... This little piggy -"

"HEEEEELLLLLLPPP!!!" Ivan hollered at the top of his lungs, legs flailing about with sheer panic. "Heeellllp!!!"

Ivan's outburst made Sheba falter, and with the addition of a bit of providence, before she made it to "roast beef", Piers had seized her from behind and pulled her away. Mia, coming not many footsteps after him, gasped out, "Sheba! What's going on here?"

"She was trying to kill me!" Ivan cried as Mia pulled him up.

"Ivan, don't be such a baby," Sheba rolled her eyes. "You know I -"

"You stay away from me, you... you demon spawn!"

Piers remarked, "I'm coming to the conclusion that taking a few hours' break was a bad idea."

----------------------

A few hours later, all of them but Isaac and Ivan were again gathered in their suite at the inn. Felix sat with the back of his chair against his chest, a thick stack of drawings in his hand. Sheba sat normal position, facing him, with one hand tied to the arm of her chair. Garet stood behind her, a hand firmly on her shoulder.

Giving a nod to Garet, Felix showed the first drawing to Sheba: a sketch of Iodem.

"Mortal," she said simply.

He flipped the first drawing to the back of the stack. The second one was of Kraden.

"Mortal," Sheba said again.

The third was of a naked bearded man carrying a large wooden object.

"God," she said this time.

The fourth was of Mia.

"God."

Garet focused a moment, and a stream of Thunderclap psynergy in the form of a purplish-white bolt of electricity jolted through Sheba, making the young Jupiter adept yelp in pain.

Felix said firmly, "No, Sheba, this one's mortal. Mortal. Now, how about this one?" He held up a drawing of Faran.

"Mortal."

Next was a drawing of Garet.

"Mortal." Another bolt of electricity went through her. "Yowch!" she cried out.

"Garet!" Jenna snapped. "She got that one right!"

"Well, why's she think the rest of you are gods, and not me?"

"I don't know," Sheba mused, rubbing at her arm with the hand not tied to the chair. "You just don't seem very godlike, somehow. Yowch!"

"Garet!" Jenna reprimanded him again. "Knock it off!"

"Why was he given the conditioning stimulus job, anyway? He has some sort of grudge against me!"

The truth was, there simply wasn't a better alternative. Mia and Piers didn't have the right psynergy for the job, Isaac was busy with supplying the ship, even letting Ivan near Sheba right now was a bad idea, and he and Jenna didn't have the heart to give her electric shocks. Or rather, Jenna didn't have the heart, and Felix didn't want Sheba to know that he _did_.

"Just keep identifying the pictures, Sheba," Felix said, showing her a picture of Kushinada.

"Mortal."

Then a picture of himself.

"God. Yowch!"

----------------------

Hours later, Sheba was under orders to stay in their inn room until further notice, while the others gathered in the dining room downstairs. Felix looked over them all for a moment and then said, "Alright. I think you can guess why I called this meeting: we're not getting through to Sheba on this."

"We can't just give up on her, Felix," Isaac said. "I know it seems hard, but we can't give up hope."

"And do what?" Felix said. "Keep ranting at her until she says what we want? That's all we can do, because hard as it is for us to admit it, we have no good evidence that she's wrong. Whether or not our powers make us gods is a matter of opinion, and we sure can't prove that we can die. Besides, what's the point?"

"Felix!" Jenna gasped. "You can't let Sheba go on with a delusion like that, after all we've been through together! Don't you care about her at all?"

"She's happy this way," he said, planting his hands firmly on the table. "I know it's tough to deal with the fact that all the experiences we shared together, all the things that brought us closer, look entirely different through Sheba's eyes. But she's happy this way, being a goddess and worshiped by people she's fond of. We have to take consolation in that. Maybe... maybe it wouldn't even be right for us to disillusion her. It could be very painful for her to learn that she's not a goddess but an ordinary girl... and to learn that some of the people she's closest to, people she thought would be around for all of eternity, are going to die."

There was a moment of silence. Then Garet burst out, "Isn't it about darn time she woke up to reality!?"

"She'll do that when she's ready, not when we force her to," Felix retorted. "Let's not end our travels with Sheba on a sour note. She's happy to be in Lalivero, and I'm sure most of you are happy to have her there, where you don't have to listen to her claims of godhood. And I know I'm happy that Sheba cleared things up with Faran so they won't be after my head anymore. Isaac, you've taken care of the supplies, right?"

He nodded. "We're all set to raise the sails."

"Then let's get out of here now, before Sheba decides to have the Lalivero guards forcibly take us to our deification ceremony." The others stared at him, as though unsure whether he was joking or not. "Oh, you hadn't heard. I did a little snooping around in between helping Isaac restock the ship. Seems that Sheba's made arrangements for our godhood to be recognized in official ceremonies that go on from this evening until almost noon tomorrow. We're to be properly worshiped, just like Sheba."

Jenna laughed. "Come on, Felix, I know you don't want to leave Sheba without even a goodbye! I sure as heck don't. What's sitting through a few boring rituals next to abandoning a good friend without a word?"

He smiled at his sister with brotherly mischievousness. "Then you're ready to go through the ceremony that will confirm Isaac as your consort? That's part of the lineup of rituals. It involves you two having a public kiss."

Jenna blushed and fidgeted. "Well... I think it's still..."

"Open-mouthed," Felix clarified. "And to demonstrate your comfortableness with each other's bodies, you'll both be completely naked."

"Okay then," Jenna said, snapping to her feet. "Let's scram."

----------------------

He had stretched the truth a bit about the naked part; the ceremony actually called for them to have cloths wrapped around their chest and pelvic regions. It was more of a symbolic nakedness than a literal one.

Felix considered the lie justifiable, however, if it managed to get them out of there without further feuding about Sheba's godhood beliefs. He, Saturos, and Menardi had done nothing but make a mess of Sheba's life ever since she first met the three of them. He was determined that it would stop here, once and for all.

_Too bad I can't say goodbye to Sheba. But all things considered, it's better for her this way._

Once they'd all snuck their way back to the ship, Isaac and Garet picked up the gangplank and positioned it for the lot of them to walk across. Jenna, meanwhile, was looking regretfully back towards Lalivero. Felix put a hand on her shoulder.

"You okay, Jenna?"

Her gaze didn't waver from Lalivero. "I'm going to miss that little monster."

"Yeah." _I suppose if she didn't make me feel overcome by guilt for involving her in the whole lighthouse-lighting mess, I might miss Sheba, too. Or if she wasn't always yapping in that condescending tone, giving me a damn headache... I really might miss the poor kid. Not that I don't like having her around, but not so much that I actually miss her. Too bad Jenna does. Won't make it any easier when I have to leave her._

"Okay, guys, let's go!" Garet called.

Felix strode forward, coming behind Isaac and Garet. Inexplicably, the two of them froze at the top of the gangplank, blocking the way. Frowning, Felix peered over Isaac's shoulder, and he felt his heart sink.

Sheba stood there with her arms folded, a displeased scowl on her face. "Were you actually going to leave me behind, Felix? After all we've been through, I can't believe you'd condemn me to such a fate. Don't you remember how I begged you not to leave me in Lalivero?"

"You didn't 'beg'. And I thought you meant you wanted to finish our journey first."

"No! So long as you guys are around, I don't want to ever go back there."

Felix gave a heavy sigh. "I just want what's best for you, Sheba. This town is your home, and you're worshiped as a goddess here."

"Exactly! That's exactly why I can't stand to spend the rest of my life in Lalivero!" She marched up to Felix, pushing Isaac and Garet to the side. "Don't you understand, Felix? I'm a goddess, but that sort of life... it's dull, it's meaningless! All I do is sit there, with people tending my every need, never letting me go where I want for fear of losing their goddess, and on top of it all, I still have no clue where I came from, who my parents are, who I am! When I journeyed with you, Felix, it was the first time I ever got to choose where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. And I may not have found the answers I was looking for, but I helped people. I did something meaningful! The sort of things gods should be doing." She took a deep breath. "Gods should be servants to their people... not fancy porcelain vases, just meant to be polished and look pretty. I've learned that on our journeys. You always knew it, didn't you, Felix?"

Felix was silent for a moment, then shook his head. "I'm not a god, Sheba."

"Oh, right," she laughed. "Look, I promise I won't speak of gods and mortals if you guys don't want. If you all want to keep on thinking of yourselves as mortals, I won't try to talk you out of it. But please... take me with you. Don't leave me here."

Felix sighed again, this time in defeat. "Isaac?"

"It's fine with me," he answered.

"Yeah, we can put up with her as long as she's not talking all this god nonsense," Garet added.

"Okay," Felix said, stepping on board at last. Sheba smiled brightly up at him. _Dammit, dammit, dammit. This is part of my punishment, isn't it?_ "Now we just need to clear this with -"

"I'm not getting on this ship until she's safely locked up in the lower cabins!"

"...Ivan," he finished.

Putting a sober expression on her face, Sheba stepped forward and extended her hand to Ivan. "Come on, Ivan... No more trying to prove you're immortal, I promise."

There was a long silence. It occurred to Felix that they were probably using mind-read on each other. When it was over, Ivan reached out for her hand and shook it. And they smiled.

"Say Sheba," Garet said, "...how did you get here without the Laliverans catching you and bringing you back, anyway?"

She smiled. "That's a long story. I'll tell all of you about it tonight."

"Hey, Felix," Jenna said to him, quietly so that the others wouldn't hear. "You don't look happy. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said. _Nothing but that Lalivero was my best hope of getting rid of Sheba before I get to Prox. If Karst is alive... Sheba won't forgive me for wanting to be with her. Jenna and my parents will understand; maybe not at first, but they'll accept it before long. Piers will understand. And anyone else can ride a ship off Gaia Falls for all I care if they won't accept Karst. But not Sheba. I don't want Sheba to hate me. And while I've tried to convince myself otherwise, Karst is everything I want. I can't give that up, not even if it means Sheba will hate me. The only chance left now is that Sheba will go back to Vale with Jenna._

"Nothing," he repeated. "I'm glad that Sheba is coming with us."

"Alright," Isaac said, as he and Garet pulled up the gangplank. "Away we go. Next stop, Imil!"

Their psynergy raised the boat from the constraining waters, and they sailed away to their next destination.

END


End file.
